Bill Lynch, No Title [Bird on Branch and Three Plates] (n.d.), via The Approach

On view now at The Approach in London, the gallery has assembled an exhibition of paintings and drawings, never shown until now, by the late American artist Bill Lynch (1960-2013) united under the title I am a Bird from Heaven’s Garden. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lynch immersed himself in making drawings and paintings for over three decades, creating lyrical, expressive gestures on salvaged plywood that would mix abstraction and concrete iconographies in striking ways.

Bill Lynch, I am a Bird from Heaven’s Garden (Installation View), via The Approach

Lynch’s work, relying almost exclusively on found materials, makes for works that seem suspended between the cast away and the constructed, with the grain of the wood and its occasionally painted backdrop serving to create unique textural conversations and graceful, repetitive patterns. Inspired by frequent visits to the Met, combined with his love of the natural environment, Lynch depicted an array of scenes in his works: birds soaring or sat on branches, foraging animals, blossoming trees, waterfalls, porcelain, statuettes and landscapes. His free-flowing brushstrokes betray his investment in Chinese and Japanese painting, but also evoke his American roots. Lynch’s confident gestures combine a dry lambent brush combined with thick, succulent paint. The moiré woodgrain on the rough boards are often absorbed into his compositions, becoming a still body of water or suggesting a moving sky. Knots and grains in the wood conjure the superimposition of moons, mushrooms, snowflakes or flowers.

Bill Lynch, No Title [Pomegranates and Branches] (n.d.), via The Approach

Bill Lynch, I am a Bird from Heaven’s Garden (Installation View), via The Approach

Unknown during his lifetime, the artist painted until his death in 2013, and the show underscores his continued practice and evolution as a painter, with increasingly elaborate scenes and studied understandings of his materials slowly emerging over the course of the show. Tracing an artist committed to the act of expression over the arc of his life, the show is an inspiring and intricate look at the act of painting as a part of life itself.

The show closes February 5th.

– D. Creahan

Read more:
Bill Lynch at The Approach [Exhibition Site]

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